[Riggan]

Ally,

First of all, I used to train service dogs, so I do understand the laws regarding this topic. To be very clear, there is no legal requirement for certification or public access testing of any type. I personally believe that these are well worth doing for owner-trainers just to get an outside perspective on your dog’s suitability, but it is not a requirement. (One caveat here: it may be required in your state for SD-in-training. Once the dog is trained, however, the ADI supercedes any such state level requirement.)

I would strongly suggest that you look at the International Association of Assistance Dog Partners (IAADP) and Assistance Dogs International (ADI) websites if you haven’t done so already. There are a variety of published Public Access Tests for Service Dogs on the Internet. Here is a link to one of them: https://www.psychdogpartners.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2017-Public-Access-Test.pdf. You can use any of these or combine them to create your own version. Just make sure that you don’t ignore areas that may be a bit weaker for your dog. Ignore any comments about not allowing prong collars. This test is for YOUR information. No one can legally deny your husband access because he is not “certified.” Do you have a trainer or knowledgeable person that you trust who has not been involved in the dog’s training? Enlist this person to the be “examiner” and then go to a public place to conduct the test. Have them rate the dog’s behavior as honestly as they can. Then adjust any training plans as needed.

Regarding task training, again, no one needs to determine this except yourself. The dog needs to be specifically trained for at least 3 tasks to mitigate your husband’s disability. Protection and emotional support (ie, benefit just from having a dog with him) are NOT considered valid or appropriate tasks. Medical alert is, as long as the dog has a specific trained alert (which can be a natural behavior such as pawing or nuzzling that has been captured and reinforced to strengthen it and increase the reliability). If you need help regarding other possible trained behaviors, I would be happy to talk with you.

It sounds like you have done a lovely job with the pup and that she is doing well. Don’t let the trainers you have talked with discourage you as long as you are truly confident that your dog is totally safe in public and that she is able to help your husband. Please thank him for his service for me. Our military men and women (and dogs!) deserve our everlasting appreciation for helping keep us safe and strong in a world that is so uncertain. God bless you both.

[Riggan]

William,

I don’t think you are anywhere near a level of needing to rehome the dog. You have a 5 month old puppy who is just entering adolescence and two young children that the dog will identify as “litter mates.” This is a time period that calls for lots of structure. Height equals status, and Riley was simply communicating to your son that she is higher status in the pack than he is. This is where you need to develop a strategy that works for you and your family so Riley can grow up confident of her position in the “pack”. Here are a few things I would consider:

1) At this age, I would be using the crate a lot. In one of the recent videos (I can’t remember which one), Robert was saying that most dogs need to spend significant time in the crate until they are a year old, but that for malinois, it is usually more like 2 years. Put the crate where Riley can still feel like part of the family, but she does not get to dictate family interactions. I would particularly have her in the crate when you are playing with the kids. She will learn that this is just a time for her to chill out. If he gets too excited, move the crate further away until she learns to be calm.

2) At this point, I would not allow Riley on the furniture at all (which is where I assume she was when you say she was over your hear). It gives her too much status. I am not against dogs on furniture, but she just showed you that having that privilege is going to her head, so privilege is lost.

3) Continue to work with Riley on obedience so you develop a strong Sit and Down stay. You might also want to get a cot bed or some other dog bed to teach her a “place” command. Then, she is not allowed off the “place” until released.

Remember that she is very young and keep on giving her the structure she needs. She is just entering her “teenage” period where she will start testing everything. Don’t be surprised and just be calm, consistent and fair. She will emerge through this as a lovely dog.

Regarding her attachment to you, my husband and I have the same situation in reverse. Our GSD mix loves us both and prefers having us all 3 together, but when I leave, he gets mopey. You might want to get your wife more involved in the training, although that might be a challenge since she also has a 2- and 4-year-old to take care of! As long as the dog has a good relationship with all of you, though, I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

[Riggan]

Lois,

In my experience, lasers easily create obsessive / compulsive disorders in many dogs and then generalize to chasing light beams, shadows, and other rapid movements. Some dogs never develop these issues, but the problem is you won’t know whether your dog falls into that category until it is too late. I would avoid them like the plague. I have used lasers with dogs, but it was to train service dogs to retrieve the item that was pointed to with the laser. There was no chasing involved, so it is a completely different issue.

Good luck!

[Riggan]

I’m glad she is recovering from her mishap. Keep in mind that at 11 weeks old, she is still a baby. Even more so than human babies, puppies explore their world by putting everything into their mouth. For some dogs, this also includes swallowing it, which can cause a health risk as you discovered. Coming down hard on a puppy, though, will only make the problem worse and damage your relationship with her. I would take a 4-prong approach:

1) Rule out any reasons why she might be excessively interested in swallowing things. A friend had a golden who constantly grabbed and swallowed everything in sight. After lots of failed attempts to fix the problem (and multiple trips to the vet), a vet finally told her that she was not feeding her growing puppy enough. Sure enough, she upped the amount of food she was giving her and the unwanted behavior dropped dramatically.

2) Teach her that giving you things is a good idea. Often, dogs start swallowing things because they have learned that we take “good” things from them. Do lots of “trades” in a training environment. Start with easy stuff, and then work up to harder things for her. There are lots of videos about this under the category of “resource guarding.”

3) Since she is doing well with “Leave It” training when you obviously drop the item, you can now take it to the next level. Go to wherever you are going to be training WITHOUT the pup and place a tempting object or treat in the area. Now bring the puppy out and use this for your Leave It training. Don’t use corrections, but make sure that she cannot reach the item (stop so that the object / treat is just beyond leash range). If she is interested and pulling to get to the item, wait her out. Just stand there until she turns to look at you with a “What’s going on?” look. IMMEDIATELY praise and reward, which should result in her running back to you to get her reward. Repeat a couple of times and then continue with other training (leave the object / treat on the ground, but move away from it for your other training). After a few minutes, repeat the “Leave It” exercise. The first few times I wouldn’t even use the “Leave It” command, since there will likely be a long pause before she gives up trying to get to the object. Once you see that she is starting to catch on, then you can introduce “Leave It” and reward for response.

Once she is really catching on, sprinkle a few objects around the area before bringing her out. Then, start doing the same exercise with tempting things that just happen to be on your walk. By this time, she should be starting to generalize what “Leave It” means, so you can start using the cue on your walks. It is crucial that she NEVER is able to get something once you have told her “Leave It,” so you will need to decide when you want to use the cue. Do NOT say “Leave It” if she already has the item or you can’t stop her from getting it. It is too late, and better to not use the cue at all than to have her learn that it can be broken.

4) When you are not able to actively train as above, it is time to manage the situation. Make sure all forbidden objects in the house are out of her reach. Puppy-proof your home and keep it that way. When you go on walks, you will need to be hyper-vigilant for a while. Try to spot any enticing object before she does and either avoid it or use it for “Leave It” training.

If she grabs something before you can stop her, don’t scold or chase her. Make a quick assessment. If the object doesn’t pose an immediate threat to her, just ignore it. Correcting her or trying to take it from her will just make it more appealing to her. I have often found that this “ignore it” approach quickly results in the dog picking up fewer things because I have taken the fun out of the game. If necessary to get something away from her, one possible approach is to pick up a different item and pretend that it is the most exciting thing around. Tease her with it a bit, and then let her “trade” you for it. You can even do this trade back and forth a few times, ending with a huge jackpot. If she enjoys tug, you might use a tug toy that you reserve just for this purpose. Praise her as soon as she gives you her prize, and then play with the new object with her briefly before calmly ending the game and proceeding with your walk.

If you must remove something from her mouth because of the hazard, do it calmly and matter-of-factly without giving any cue such as “Drop.” (Work on training “Give” or “Drop” separately so that eventually you will be able to use these commands, but trying to use them now will just backfire on you.) You want to make it as much of a non-event as possible. Needless to say, the pup must be on leash to do any of this since you can’t control her when she is off leash and the game of chase to catch her becomes an incredibly high value reward for her to grab undesirable objects.

Good luck! Some of this behavior will subside with maturity as long as you don’t make it rewarding for her. Remember that negative attention is still attention and can be highly reinforcing. Letting the situation turn into keep-away make it even more rewarding. It can be incredibly frustrating and even scary when you have already had to make an emergency trip to the vet, but remember that it is a normal part of puppyhood.

[Riggan]

In some of the Bound Angels videos, Robert shows how to use a clatter stick to remind dogs to play nicely. It is NOT used to hit the dogs, but to separate them or startle them. I don’t have links to them, but you can find them on the Bound Angel site in the videos on group play.

[Riggan]

TT,

I can’t answer your question directly since there are so many factors involved: your dog’s temperament and background, the techniques and skill level of the trainer, etc. But I can give you some things to think about.

Some background: Lance (4yo GSD mix) came into our home a year ago. He was picked up on the streets at about 1yo. After about 6 months, he was adopted by a young couple. They sent him to a highly respected board and train for 2 weeks. After about a year, they returned him to the shelter because of issues with their newborn child. I adopted him 3 months later. So I have seen the results from a situation similar to yours, and can say that the board and train was a disastrous experience for Lance, for the reasons I will list below.

1) Board and train trainers need to get results quickly since they only have the dog for a couple of weeks and they must demonstrate their value to the client. This often means using techniques that are not the most effective for dogs with fear issues. In Lance’s case, they used prong and e-collars. Since Lance is one of the softest dogs I have ever worked with, these tools only reinforced his fear that people cause pain and are to be feared. Yes, he had a very good “Sit” when I adopted him, but at the cost of a dog who was completely shut down and hated anything that resembled training. It also was not effective when something was so scary that it overrode his fear of the punishment. In his case, this was his terror of the baby, which in turn led to fear aggression displays and his return to the shelter. Fear behaviors cannot be resolved quickly and therefore I don’t believe that they are appropriately addressed by most board and train facilities.

2) Just because a dog behaves beautifully with a professional trainer does not mean he will behave for you. Especially with fear issues, the dog must develop a strong relationship with YOU. You must also learn the techniques that are going to be used with your dog. For most people, I think finding a good trainer who has experience working with fearful dogs and then having him / her train you to train the dog is the most effective approach. This also allows you to go at whatever pace the dog is able to tolerate. You and the dog learn together, building a relationship of trust in the process.

3) If your dog is a rescue, and particularly if he came from a shelter, going into a board and train facility can be very traumatic as it is another case of being “abandoned” by someone in the same way he was abandoned at the shelter. Different dogs deal with this transition of environments differently. Some can recover relatively quickly, while others can be completely broken by it. Each time, though, it takes longer for the dog to trust.

4) Much also depends on your own schedule and capabilities. Working through fear issues requires time and consistency. You must also be able to keep both the dog and everyone the dog is around safe as you work through his issues. Are you in a position to be able to do this? (There is no judgment here. There are many life circumstances that can make this difficult if not impossible. The important thing is to be honest with yourself.) If you can, then I promise the results will be worth it. You will develop a strong bond of trust between you and your dog, become more confident in your own ability to work through issues, and experience the pride of seeing the progress in your dog as he becomes happier and more confident. If you can afford board and train, I assume that weekly lessons with a trainer would also be possible.

Now you have to consider your particular dog, situation, and the board and train you are considering. Fear aggression can lead to a variety of outcomes. The dog can go into a threat display and if that does not succeed can then either attack (fight), flee (flight), or completely shut down (freeze). Which the dog chooses will depend on their personality. If the dog’s default mode is to attack, then board and train may be useful to keep everyone safe IF the trainer is very experienced in breaking this pattern successfully and then transferring this skill to the owner. The key issue here for me would be the level of danger that the dog poses to others. If possible, I would still prefer for the owner to work directly with the trainer rather than send the dog to “boot camp.”

Hopefully this has given you some things to consider. Welcome to the group, and don’t hesitate to ask as many questions as occur to you. There is a wealth of experience here. Sometimes you will get conflicting recommendations, but each will give you food for thought as you decide what is right for you.

[Riggan]

Good questions, Eke! Here are the commands I use:

1) “Come” – this is what any puppies or new dogs start with. It just means come to me. Especially when they are just learning the command, I start praising as soon as they begin to turn and come my way. Then, as soon as they reach me, I give my release word “Yes!” and reward. They are not expected to add some other behavior such as a Sit when they reach me. As they become proficient with the command, I will start adding distance (how far away they are from me when I give the command), distraction (how exciting other things in the environment are), and duration (how long they have to remain in front of me before they get the reward). With the last one, I want them to stay in front of me long enough for me to be able to put a leash on them, give them another command, or whatever else I may want to do. I only add one of these “Ds” at a time, though, and do it very gradually.

2) “Front” – this is my formal recall. It means run to me and sit right in front of me, waiting for whatever is going to happen next.

3) “Let’s Go!” – I don’t really consider this a recall since the dog doesn’t return to me. I use it out on walks and it means just what you said – Stop doing whatever you are doing and catch up with (or he can go past) me. I just want him heading the same direction I am going.

4) “Heel” – this isn’t taught as a recall initially, but eventually can be part of a recall. “Heel” means get into position on my left side. This might be given when he is sitting right in front of me or when he is across the field. Either way, it means move into position and then remain in that position even if I start moving.

There is nothing magical about any of these words. You could certainly use “Here” instead of “Front.” And since English is a second language for you, you can certainly use words in your native language. It was really very perceptive of you to realize that you were using the word “Come” to mean two different things for your dog. That is certainly something that you want to correct. Otherwise, it sounds like you are doing a great job! Enjoy your pup.

Riggan

[Riggan]

Takoda gave an excellent explanation. The only thing I do differently is introduction of the command. Once I am confident that the puppy will respond to the lure correctly about 80% of the time, I start saying the command as I lure the behavior. After a will, I say the command and then lure. Once the pup is really solid with that, I say the command and wait a second or two before luring. If the puppy responds correctly before I start the lure, then it is party time! Otherwise, I continue with the lure as usual. If the pup does not respond to the command twice in a row, I go back to doing command then lure for a while. For some behaviors, I might be starting the command at 8-10 weeks while it might not be until 6 months for other behaviors. It all depends on how the dog responds.

Just as a side note, one of the big service dog programs in the country starts training their puppies beginning at just a couple of weeks old. By the time the puppies are 8 weeks, they are relatively fluent in numerous commands. It is quite amazing to see!

Good luck! Training is about finding what works for you and your dog. There is many different ways you can do it that are all equally “right.”

[Riggan]

Yes, these are purpose bred puppies, but I don’t see any reason the concept wouldn’t work with any puppy. Bonnie Bergin pioneered this at her Assistance Dog Institute (now Bergin University). It’s been many years since I saw their presentation at an Assistance Dog International conference, so I might have some details wrong, but you’ll get the idea. During the first few weeks of life, the puppies take part in Early Neurological Stimulation exercises. Then, around 3 weeks, they begin training with food reward. Of course at this age everything is positive only. They start luring and shaping most of the commands that an assistance dog will need to learn before placement, so it is not just sit / down / come. By the time the pup is 9 weeks on, they have rudimentary skills such as turning light switches on / off, opening and closing doors, heeling, fetch, etc. Bonnie started this out of frustration about how long it could take to undo poor training techniques from puppy raisers. She thought if she could imprint the basic commands in the puppy’s formative weeks, that it would be easier to “untrain” the puppies when they returned for advanced training around 18-24 months. It worked far better than she had hoped since puppies quickly revert to “default” behaviors they learn while still with their mom and littermates. She is just making sure that these “defaults” are the behaviors she wants! As a result, their “career change” rate (ie, dogs placed as pets or in jobs other than service dogs) dropped significantly and the advanced training time frame was shortened.

I did find a short video on YouTube showing pups in training at 3-4 weeks and then again at 7-9 weeks. Pretty impressive!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0EO-6drKW8

[Riggan]

Excellent advice by Takoda. You might also try using lower value treats. Often for dogs who are strongly food motivated, a piece of their kibble is enough. Using higher value treats can get these dogs really worked up and excited.

Also watch your body language. Keep your movements slow and calm and your voice low and firm (NOT angry – just a bit lower in pitch). Especially for us women, sometimes our higher pitched voices can be stimulating for dogs. Learn to use body pressure to help the pup understand what you want. For example, leaning forward slightly or taking a step towards the dog claims your personal space. When the young pup is running toward us and we know those shark-teeth are about to latch onto us (or our clothes), our instinctive reaction is to step back. This just encourages the dog to jump on us or latch onto the clothes. Some dogs are most naturally aware of human body language than others. For the sensitive ones, the change can be dramatic. I visited my daughter shortly after she had gotten her 10-mo Mal / Husky cross. She wanted help with the dog jumping on everyone. I walked in the door and Lily raced towards me preparing to launch. I leaned forward just a bit, and she immediately stopped in front of me and sat! You could almost read the expression on her face: “Finally – someone who speaks dog!” She was unusually responsive, but you get the idea. For less responsive dogs, taking a step or two towards them might be necessary. For the oblivious lout, I just keep walking into them (not kicking them or doing anything aversive; just keep moving forward) until they give way. This is done silently. I want them to learn that this is MY space – not theirs. As soon as they back off, even a tiny bit, I praise them. Give it a try!